AFCON 2021: Any coach will fail with the materials we have – NDC’s Akuoku

The National Democratic Congress’ NDC 2020 Parliamentary candidate for Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro, Alexander Akuoko, says the best coach in the world will never achieve success with the current crop of Black Stars players.

“We don’t need a coach if we have the right materials. We could have blamed Coach Milovan if the Black Stars failed in 2010 with the crop of players we had then. But with the players we have now, any coach will fail if he’s given the team to handle. Now we need to focus on building the team. We had a quality crop of players in 2010 and their names incited support amongst the Ghanaian populace. Our midfield was one of the best at the time. We had the likes of Michael Essien, Anthony Annan and Kevin Boateng and they were the best at the time.”

In a panel discussion on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show with Sefah-Danquah, he disclosed Ghanaian players are no more patriotic. “The players are all focused on making money when they should be thinking of dying for the nation. The team is bad and even if you motivate them with bonuses the outcome will still be the same.”

He expressed his surprise at Comoros beating Ghana at the group stage of the 2021 African Cup of Nations and blamed the defeat on the call ups made into the National Team. “We should call up players to the National Team based on competency and not who you know. The goal king in the Ghana Premier League was not even a part of the team and that shows the rot in the FA now.”

The politician charged the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to put in place policies to see to the development of local players. “We need to create a team and not just make call ups to the National Team. We need to build a team to win tournaments for us.”

Ghana drew to Gabon, and was beaten by Morocco and debutants Comoros in the group stages of the ongoing African Cup of Nations, seeing them eliminated from the competition without recording a single win. The first time in history the country has participated in the AFCON without winning a game.